Comments on: Five Reasons You Should Always “Stop. Think. Connect.”

By: seo

seo — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:45:18 +0000

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By: Phishers Cast Their Nets in the Social Media Pool « Webroot Threat Blog

Phishers Cast Their Nets in the Social Media Pool « Webroot Threat Blog — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:24:13 +0000

[...] assume it is actually from them. The attack vector is new, but our old advice still applies: Stop and think before you [...]

By: Tom King

Tom King — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:57:00 +0000

A late response, I admit, but I only just search-landed here while following up on some t35.com spam issues.

“The minute you see a fakealert, stop everything you’re doing, kill the browser (use the Alt-F4 key combination if you need to), and perform a full scan with the legitimate antivirus product of your choice.”

If I may offer some info related to that, I usually suggest folks ignore everything they see, fight instinctive responses to click/close anything (the “rules” change when dealing with malicious activities, so what normally “closes” something might instead initiate more unwanted actions), and instead head right to whatever is necessary to immediately kill their Internet connection. Cable or DSL, pull the ethernet cable from the computer or modem, dial-up, the telephone chord, and wireless, the router or modem incoming cables, or even the power cord to one of those. If those are not handy, then use the quickest method to disable the Internet connection, such as switching a laptop’s “radio button” off. Isolate the malware, and cut off it’s connection to it’s “mothership”.

Regardless of what has occurred, this first action will guarantee nothing else gets delivered. And then folks should follow the other helpful guidelines you suggested.

By: Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:56:23 +0000

I don’t know about the state of your computer, but it sounds to me like someone Phished your PayPal password and then used the account credentials to drain your savings.

Other than file a police report, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m sorry this happened, but PayPal is one of the most heavily targeted online financial services by criminals. All I can say is, while I feel for your loss, there are thousands of stories just like this one that I never hear about.

PayPal has an SMS Verification service that sends a six-digit code as a text message to your cellphone every time you try to log in. If you don’t enter the code as well as the username and password, PayPal won’t log you in. As a phishing prevention mechanism, it is extremely effective and I would urge you to sign up for this free service — if you haven’t lost faith in PayPal altogether and canceled your account by now.

Please update us when you know more.

-=A

By: Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:51:14 +0000

I’m happy to hear that things worked out.

Remember, the panic reaction is exactly what the scammers want you to have. When you panic, you don’t think and act on instinct, and for most people, that gets them into trouble.

-=A

By: Security Awareness - Stop, Think, Connect - Harry Waldron - Corporate IT Security

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:53:42 +0000

[...] Security Awareness – Stop, Think, Connecthttp://blog.webroot.com/2010/10/04/five-reasons-you-should-always-stop-think-connect-2/ [...]

By: Rob Davis

Rob Davis — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:19:33 +0000

I will be forwarding this article to my friends, family and co-workers. Nice and concise break down of the most common threats. Thanks!

By: James Furlong

James Furlong — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:45:25 +0000

My wife was on the PC last month doing some emails.We use Windows XP with all the free protection given to MSN subscibers. The computer was attacted by a barrage of viruses and spyware, all of which was stopped in it’s track by Webroot,McAfee and Windows XP. I did a Webroot sweep after the attact and found an issue Webroot quaratined it had four red bars ( guess that means bad news.) Any way it is in quaranteen now. The mistake I made during the attack was PANIC. I downloaded something but never opened it because of the information you and others provide, just threw it in the trash. About a week later a porn video pops up out of no where and runs on it’s own. Thank God I was on the computer at the time. Enjoyed the video but cleaned my video files after it ran. THANK You for your diligence in protecting amatuers like myself and family.

By: estella simon

estella simon — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 03:20:15 +0000

I have just about lost faith in all internet security. I’m beginning to think it’s a big joke that do nothing but rip us off. On July 31, 2008 I had an internet business a gift shop, I had just finish restocking my business, had a new face and everything. Later that day I decided to check my bank statement online and I saw where $100 was being transferred from my account to my online account at PayPal. Then I got an alert about funds being transferred from another bank where I have my checking. I phoned PayPal and ask them why are you taking money out of my saving. They said they were not doing that and they could do nothing until the funds posted into my account. I phoned the bank where my saving was and them I did not authorized this,
the same thing was happing at WAMU where I had my checking, I phoned them also. To make a long story short, 3 banks I notified all of them to what was happing. I was speaking with there security department.
Everyone one of them said to me, once the funds post just transfer them back. It took five days to post and at 3:00am while I was sleeping someone out there in cyber space was online every 5 or 10 minutes taking $100.00 out of each of my account until they could get no more. They even rack up $634.00 in non sufficent fund charges. The minute the funds hit PayPal they were gone. 3 security departments from 3 companies could not stop this when I notified them way before it happen. Who ever it was wipe me out, I lost my internet gift shop and to top it all off, I could not sue non of them. They refuse to give me an affidavite or even a statement saying my accounts had been compromise. I came close to being put out on the street because I could not pay my bills. I had the best microsoft had to offer in security, didn’t work. I now am trying a trial security called TREND Micro for 30 days. It seem to be working ok and it ends November 15, 2010. Can anyone tell me what happen with these security companies? It so hard for me to trust now. Thanks for listing.

By: Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:16:27 +0000

I think you're misunderstanding the difference between clicking a link embedded in an email message, and clicking the message as it appears in the list of messages you've received in Outlook Express. Of course you have to select the message to delete it. Just don't click any of the suspicious links in the message body itself.